Patent GB-761477-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in shoe presses
IPC: A43D25/06
Filed: 1954-05-25
Abstract: 761,477. Shoe bottom presses. COMPO SHOE MACHINERY CORPORATION. May 25, 1954 [Dec. 7, 1953], No. 15437/54. Class 17 (1). A shoe bottom press comprises a cylinder 11 with a piston 13 movable therein, an inflatable pad 14 carried by the piston, a work support 127 spaced from the pad, means for admitting fluid under pressure into the cylinder so that the' piston moves a work article on the pad into position against the support, and means for inflating the pad so as to press the article against the support. In the two-station machine described each pad box is replaceably located on its support 15 by engaging pins 18 on the support in holes in the lower pad member 17 and is rotatable about its support 29 through an angle of 90 degrees, the heel and toe supports 128, 129 are movable relatively to each other independently or in unison, and each pad box has no inner inflatable tube but the upper flexible surface is attached to the pad box by an integral bead 19 secured in recesses in the lower and upper pad members 17, 21. Member 21 has an upstanding portion 23 which extends around and contacts the upstanding portion 24 of the pad. Filler blocks 25, 26 in the box reduce the air space. Each pad box is supplied with compressed air from pipe 33, 32 through bores 28', 28, gasket 30 sealing the joint, and pipe 33 moving in a curved slot in the frame when the box is moved about block 29. Each toe support 129 on a threaded rod 138 is adjustable vertically, by a handwheel 134, in a slide member 142 which is slidably in the frame 136 and has a rack 145 attached thereto. Each heel support 129 on a threaded rod 134 is adjustable vertically in slide 137 and sleeve 133 by a handwheel 132 on the latter, slide 137 being slidable in the channel portion 139 of frame 136 and carrying a rack 126. The toe and heel supports may be moved towards or from each other by means of a spur gear 146 meshed with racks 126, 145 and rotated by handwheel 148, or may be freely moved by first disengaging the gear by pressing the handwheel inwardly against a spring 150 (not shown). Slide 142 is clamped to the frame by means of a handwheel 160. A wedge 144 causes the toe support to be lowered automatically as it approaches the heel support, and vice versa. An arrangement controlled pneumatically and another controlled electrically are described and illustrated. In the former the operator depresses a treadle 70 to actuate a valve which admits compressed air to cylinder 11 via a first pilot valve and speed control valve, thus raising the pad box. At the same time air passes via the first pilot valve to a delay valve and hence via a second pilot valve to the pad box, which becomes inflated, the delay valve preventing the inflation of the pad until the latter is fully raised. The adjustable timing valve 62 bleeds air from the cylinder of the second pilot valve, and after the selected time the valve moves to connect the pad box to exhaust. A second timing valve also bleeds air from the cylinder of the first pilot valve which operates to exhaust cylinder 11 so that piston 13 and the pad box are lowered. While this sequence of operations occurs at one station following depression of the corresponding treadle 70, the operator sets the other station into operation, the two stations thus being alternately operated, but both operating at the same time. The same sequence of operations is carried out in the electrically controlled apparatus, which includes, at each station, a treadle operated switch, solenoid operated valves controlling the flow of air to cylinder 11 and the pad box, a switch controlling the latter valve which is itself operated as a result of a rise in pressure in cylinder 11, and an electric timer. A counting device is included in both systems.